Diamond Colors and Nuances

"How the Color Grading Works"

Not sure how the color of a diamond jewelry affects the price?
This page will explain how diamond colors work - as well as tips on what colors to choose from.

Photo credit: Shannon Stapleton, Reuters

You should know that even though the majority of diamonds appear colorless to your naked eye,
they contain light traces of yellow or light brown when viewed under a jeweler's loupe.

Color-less and near-colorless diamonds are the most valuable because of their purity which enhances the sparkle of the gemstone.

Amazingly, a single increase in color grade (towards color-less) can boost the value of a diamond by thousands of dollars per carat.

Looking for diamond replicas? If you want to be able to decide what colors you want on your crystal or gemstone jewelry without having to pay a fortune, then you might want to look into Cubic Zirconia jewelry. They're man-made, affordable and can be found in a variet of jewelry styles.

GIA's Color Grading Scale

To give you a better understanding of how the whole color grading works, take a look at this chart that demonstrates the different gradings and nuances of a diamond:

The GIA scale starts with D for perfectly colorless stones and gives a Z color grade to diamonds with a noticeable yellow tint.
Common color gradings at an affordable price-range are between L to G. D's are the most expensive.

Today's standard color grading scale was first developed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). Other color scales are still used
in other parts of the world.

Fancy Diamond Colors

In nature, diamonds can also occur in shades of red, pink, blue, green and deep yellow - these are called "fancy diamonds".
They're available in a very limited supply.

Diamonds with more color than the Z shown at the color grading scale above include fancy yellow, canary yellow, purple etc. Colors such as "intense blue"
is probably the rarest and
treasured fancy diamond color - and can be sold for as much as $130,000 per carat for 1-carat stones!